ALDH2 and malaria: Indeed, some studies on ALDH2 genetic polymorphism have indicated that the ALDH2 ∗ 504Lys allele had some compensating advantage because they tended to drink less alcohol or had some other advantages (Li et al. 2009; Goldman and Enoch 1990; Lin and Cheng 2002), as in the case of the gene that causes sickle cell anemia conferring a compensating advantage of a certain level of resistance to malaria.